Chapter Two: A Future to Change

Chapter Key

Kitsune: Fox; usually a demon
Musume(-chan): Daughter
Ningen: human/Mortal
Outo-sama: Lord Father
Youkai: Demon

-s-s-s-s-s-

The strange girl's future, and why she left...

"Otou-sama, what was Papa's childhood like? He avoids the subject every time I bring it up," a young girl's voice asked a shadowed, red haired man. Said man was braiding his daughter's long, reddish blonde locks, and just sighed at the girl's questioning.

"I cannot say, my kit. Though there was a time your Papa and I hated one another with a passion." Upon the young one's startled glance as she turned back to face him, the red headed male just sighed, pulled the hair apart and started re-braiding it with deft fingers.

"Sou ka?" asked the girl, obediently sitting still.

"Hai, it's true, youngling. When I was sealed inside my koi's stomach, we resented one another." Sensing his child's confusion, the man continued, "He for the loneliness and pain my presence caused, and I for his place in restraining me to seek my revenge."

The daughter took her father's pause as a sight to ask another question. "Loneliness, Otou-sama? I've noticed that Papa isn't always happy when he's not with us or training his Uyoku friends. Why's that?"

Kyuubi no Kitsune, once the most feared demon in either the Ningen or Demon realms, winced as his daughter spoke of his once-human lover's Mortal offspring. As it was, Naruto, his light and love, hadn't always cared for the Immortal fox as he now did. The Uyoku were the decedents of his blonde and the long deceased Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Kyoko (Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura's child).

The right wing (Uyoku), as their last name translated means, became separated into two groups: those who carried the evolved Byakugan (now an icy blue) and those with the (modified) permanent Mangekyou sharingan.

(1) Hyuuga Hinata -- Uzumaki Naruto -- (2) Uchiha Kyoko
(1) (3 children, 1 Male, 2 female) (2) (3C, 2M 1F)
(1) Byugen Uyoku (2) Mange Uyoku
(Byugen: Byukagen ; Mange: Mangekyou)

"Your Papa's loneliness come from being hated as a child. It was because of me, dear one. Now he has embraced his demonic roots and outlived his first lovers and friends by many a century." Kyuubi's cat-like eyes dulled as he remembered feeling his former vessel's pain of loss, all because of him.

Their daughter, the one he'd hoped wouldn't see the loneliness and pain she had, blinked up at him as her father's flawless fingers tied a red ribbon around the end of her braid. She smiled his lover's smile, with hair a mixture of both her parent's and eyes so much like Naruto's as a child: innocent with an underlying knowing; jewels of endless blue.

"Don't be sad, otou-sama! We're happy now, aren't we?"

Kyuubi looked up at the darkening sky over what had once been the Hidden Village Konohagakure, smiling slightly as she saw his ever-cheerful daughter staring at him from her crouching position by the open screen door. "So we are... so we are..."

"Outo-sama?" the girl asked tentatively, as the demon lord become lost in past memories.

"Hai, musume-chan?" Her father turned to her, pale skin almost glowing in the moonlight.

"When will Papa be home?" asked the bright redhead, staring innocently at him. Kyuubi sighed. She was so much like her other father...

"Around dusk," glancing up at the sky, "within the hour."

"Yay!" exclaimed Seishi of the newly founded (at her birth many years ago) Uzukyuu clan, smiling her Papa's famous fox grin.

The kitsune youkai knew that his daughter and lover loved to spend time 'bonding'; more like playing random pranks on the Uyoku of both branches. At least the girl was like them both, inheriting Kyuubi's brains and reasoning as well as Naruto's stamina and unpredictable-ness as well as temper (though subdued) and nature to do seemingly foolish things.

The sliding paper door opened to admit one of the most beautiful adult men ever to grace the Earth; long blonde hair with orange roots and tips -much like Seishi's own- was pulled back at the nape of his neck as deep blue eyes, darker and with a purplish tint, stared out at you with their soulful depths. He was taller, though still shorter than the giant Kyuubi, and slimmer.

His lover, on the other hand, was sleek and slim, larger than Naruto in height and build, with flaming red hair and blood red eyes fiery enough to burn water with a glance. Kyuubi was surprisingly pale, as Naruto's natural tan only darkened as he aged, and seemed to glow compared to his lover.

"Hello, minna!" called Naruto, smiling at his demon family. He swung his black-sheathed katana from its usual resting place across his shoulders and spread his arms wide, awaiting his daughter's attack.

"Papa!" came the cry as Seishi, Kyuubi and the blonde's only living child, ran into her Papa's arms, hugging him tightly. She, like the old Naruto, was affectionate to everyone, but especially to her fathers and family.

"How was training, Papa?" the girl asked enthusiastically, settling in the elder's lap as he shifted into a comfortable sitting position.

Naruto fox-grinned. "Great, as always. Kyoko-chan and Arina-chan are getting the hang of Ryuu Ken's second kata. They miss you practicing with them, thought."

Their daughter pouted slightly as her Papa smiled and ruffled her hair, entwining his fingers in the loose strands where her braid began. "Got your Outo-sama to braid hair again, eh?"

Seishi nodded, smiling brightly up at him. "Hai, Papa!"

The two troublemakers talked of their Uyoku friends and many other things as Kyuubi silently watched, commented here and there, reveling in the feeling of family. Oh, how he wished this peace would last, even though he knew all too well it wouldn't.

-s-s-s-s-s-

A shadow crept down the hall, past an elaborately carved wooden screen partially open, silent as a cat as she made her way, stopping only when she could full hear the ones she wished to eavesdrop on.

"You haven't told her yet, have you." It was a statement, not a question. The voice was warm, soft spoken and held the presence of calmness many thought it never would; a parent's voice, or someone used to responsibility.

"No." A short, sharp answer from a deep rumble. This voice held underlying fire and a fierce, untamed wildness the other had managed to capture.

"Tomorrow, then?" Spoken seriously, emotionlessly by the warm one.

"So soon?" asked the other. The sound of shuffling papers as someone shifted.

A sigh. "No. You're right; tomorrow is fine."

"It's late." A deliberate change of subject.

Body shifting again; the rustle of silken sheets. "So it is."

A silent pause, the air slightly tense.

"Tomorrow then?" The fiery voice awaited confirmation.

"Hai." Yawning widely as stated in reply.

A smiling voice. "G'night, love."

Another yawn. "Oyasumi, Kyuu-koi." Again the rustling of sheets and shifting of forms as they made themselves comfortable.

Silence disturbed only by the slight snoring of one of the room's occupants.

The eavesdropper smiled to herself. Her parents were always like that; never fighting, just getting along in a practiced, tired manner. She hated seeing them like that: so weary and at the same time relaxed.

Yet she would change it all, Seishi had decided long ago. With her in the past, Papa could never be lonely or be hated by everyone.

As she stalked quietly away from her parent's bedroom door, little did she know that the end of their peace had just begun with an idea.

-s-s-s-s-s-

It took her years, but she finally perfected a draining jutsu that would make her sleep more than usual (ten hours!) after depleting her chakra and youki stores. But it was worth being vulnerable for a short time to have a place in her Papa's childhood and ease the loneliness. Maybe from afar, or maybe from his side, she didn't care; as long as her father knew love and family before any of his adventures began (how he became a gennin, for example), it was worth it, in her mind.

Using her custom-made kinjutsu of Time, Seishi smiled. Falling from the sky couldn't hurt that much, right? (Especially when she landed on a walking cushion.)

-s-s-s-s-s-